Title: Fairytale Gone Bad
Author: rachelAbendstern
Characters: Ryan Wolfe, Eric Delko
Summary: ...but they don't have to end in a disaster either.
Disclaimer: No, still don't belong to me...
Spoilers: Mild season 5 'Man Down'
Warning: Still SLASH; tissue-warning, I think. At least my beta needed some...
Author's Notes: Like promised, the epilogue. Not exactly happy, but not as bleak as where I left it originally...

Epilogue

It was a few weeks after Eric's release from hospital that the older man surprised him. Back in the lab, ever since Eric had been cleared for work again, Ryan had tried to avoid the other man as much as possible. Ryan didn't think they'd spoken more than a handful of words during that time.

It was late, almost midnight when Ryan heard a knock at his door. When he opened, there was a haggard, serious Eric standing in front of him. The hair on his head that had been shaved for the emergency surgery already started to grow back, and it lent the Cuban a rugged, almost untidy quality. For a long time, neither of them said a word.

Then, voice thick with regret, Eric stated, "We screwed up, didn't we?"

Ryan took a deep breath, avoiding his lover's eyes, before managing a weak smile. "Phenomenally."

He stepped aside and motioned the other man in without another word. Once they were seated in his living room, opposite of each other, an uncomfortable silence settled over them. Ryan could see the question in Eric's eyes, in his body language, but for some reason, the Cuban hesitated asking out loud.

Looking down at his hands, Ryan finally answered quietly, "You didn't remember, and I..." Biting his lips, Ryan confessed, "I didn't know how to tell you."

What was left unspoken was that Eric wouldn't have taken Ryan's explanation well even he if he had found the right words. At that time, Eric only remembered him as the arrogant rookie who had taken his dead friend's place. And even if Ryan knew that Eric was not to blame, it was just another thing about their messed up relationship that cut him to the bone.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eric nod his head in sad understanding. Looking up again, Ryan waited for Eric to speak. The quiet felt unsettling, unfamiliar between them. He knew there must have been quiet times before, but somehow, whenever he thought back, all Ryan could remember were shouts and cries and pleas and sex. It was never this quiet.

When Eric finally started talking, Ryan almost regretted losing the silence.

"I think we kind of needed a time-out like this. Not with me getting shot, but...you know."

Eric looked at him expectantly, and Ryan nodded. He did know. Had thought the very same thing even before his friend had been hurt.

"To open our eyes...to open my eyes to what's been going on with us." Eric stopped again, and Ryan looked to the side. Wishful thinking had led him to believe that he would get around this conversation, but deep down, he knew he couldn't escape it. They couldn't afford to leave another thing hanging unresolved between them.

Another silence followed, so deep, so miserable that it was ringing in Ryan's ears. He had thought so often about leaving, wasn't more than a minute away from walking several times and yet...

It seemed that, even knowing what they had to do, Ryan wasn't the only one who was reluctant to end this...moment, this conversation, this...their relationship.

It warmed him in a way that nothing else had those last months when Eric drew in a shaky breath and asked, whispered, "So, where do we go from here?"

And it broke his heart into a million pieces when he had to answer, "I think you know. I think we need some time away." He hated the way his own voice broke over his words, but he couldn't control it.

"Just give up?" There was still some fight left in those words, but when Ryan looked into Eric's deep, dark eyes, he recognized the same resignation, the same misery that swept through his own being in this moment.

"Sometimes that's the best option."

He avoided Eric's eyes, blinking hard, refusing to let the tears fall, when suddenly, he felt soft lips on his forehead. Then there were strong arms drawing him close, and Ryan followed unresistingly. He hesitated for all of a minute, still fighting the tears, before he crumbled, arms coming up to cling to Eric's warm body, head burrowing in the crook of Eric's neck. And finally, he let the tears fall.

Later, when he lay, once again curled up in his bed, head pounding, eyes itching, nose running, he felt curiously relieved. As if a weight had dropped off his shoulders. And he felt a small bittersweet smile twitch at the corners of his mouth when he recalled Eric's parting words, spoken with an ironic, serious smile before the Cuban turned around and left.

"Maybe we just need to learn how to be friends first."

Maybe. And maybe there was still a fairytale waiting for them, and this was not the end but the beginning...

The End?

A/N: shadowfax told me I had to write a sequel ) But don't get your hopes up just yet, b/c my plotbunnies are not exactly cooperating with me at the moment...